9781906124182 Chapter 2 Multiple Choice Questions

8/12/2019 9781906124182 Chapter 2 Multiple Choice Questions

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/9781906124182-chapter-2-multiple-choice-questions 1/7

IT Service Management Foundation Practice Questions: For ITIL v3Foundation Exam Candidates

by Steve Mann, Nigel Mear and Tony GannonBCS. (c) 2009. Copying Prohibited.

Reprinted for PRADEEP H. BASAVARAJU, IBM

[email protected]

Reprinted with permission as a subscription benefit of Books24x7,

http://www.books24x7.com/

All rights reserved. Reproduction and/or distribution in whole or in part in electronic,paper or

other forms without written permission is prohibited.

http://www.books24x7.com/



Chapter 2: Multiple-Choice Questions

We will now look at the question anatomy and the different types of question in the ITIL Service Management Examination.

ANATOMY OF A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTION

A multiple-choice question comprises two main parts: the ‘stem’ and the ‘response alternatives’.

The stem is ‘the question’ and the ‘response alternatives’ are the potential answers. Incorrect responses are known as

‘distracters’. A set of good distracters makes a question harder than one with poor distracters.

HINT

Read the question and all the response alternatives at least twice before deciding on your answer.

Here are some examples. The answers to the questions used as examples can be found at the end of this chapter on page10.

EXAMPLE 1

Answers

Some questions will not follow the simple approach of Example 1. An alternative style, very common in ServiceManagement examinations, is to list ‘statements’, and then offer a selection of response alternatives.

EXAMPLE 2

Stem

How many phases are there in the Service Lifecycle?

Response alternatives

A. 6

B. 5

C. 4

D. 3

Simply pick the right answer!

?

B There are five phases within the ITIL v3 lifecycle: Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition,Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement.

Stem

Which of the following are reasons for investing in ServiceManagement?

Statements

1. Increased customer satisfaction

2. Increased levels of availability

?

T Service Management Foundation Practice Questions: For ITIL v3 Foundation Exam Candidates

Reprinted for ibm\[email protected], IBM BCS, British Informatics Society Limited (c) 2009, Copying Prohibited

Page 2 / 7



Answers

In questions like Example 2, you need to look at each statement and decide if it meets the criteria in the‘stem

’. In theexample, does the statement give a good reason for investing in Service Management? If you feel it does, include the

statement, if not exclude it.

HINT

There are two ways of approaching the ‘list’ type of question.

One way is to look at the statements to see which are ‘positive’ (i.e. those that meet the requirement of the question)and select the appropriate response.

An alternative way is to identify which statement is ‘negative’ and select the response that does not include thatstatement.

Combining these approaches provides a ‘quality check’ of your answer.

TYPES OF MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTION

There are many different types of multiple-choice question. Here are a few examples of the different types of question youmay encounter.

Standard

The ‘standard’ question is a simple ‘stem’ with four ‘response alternatives’. A typical examination paper will have more

‘standard’ questions than other types. Standard questions are considered less confusing to answer than the other types of

question, and they are (usually) shorter.

EXAMPLE 3

3. Reduction in the number of Incidents

4. Increased number of SLA breaches

Response alternatives

A. 1, 2 and 3 only

B. 1, 2 and 4 only

C. 1, 3 and 4 only

D. 2, 3 and 4 only

A Increasing the number of SLA breaches is not a reason (a benefit) to invest in Service Management. Theother statements are all good reasons to invest in Service Management.

How many main functional areas are described in the Service Operation lifecyclephase?

A. 6

B. 5

C. 4

D. 3

As we have already seen, simply choose the correct answer.

?



Page 3 / 7



Answers

Standard Negative

The ‘standard’ question above could be referred to as ‘standard positive’. Another type of question is known as ‘standardnegative’. This is where the ‘stem’ contains a negative word such as NOT or LEAST.

In ‘standard negative’ questions, the negative word is usually printed in CAPITALS.

EXAMPLE 4

Answers

HINT

A common mistake is to miss the negative word in the stem. If you read through the paper too quickly you potentially risklosing marks.

Standard Definition or Matching

A variation of the standard question is where the subject is a definition and you have to ‘match’ the definition to the correctdescription. This is often referred to as a ‘standard definition’ or ‘matching’ question.

EXAMPLE 5

C There are four main functional areas described within Service Operations: Service Desk, TechnicalManagement, Application Management and IT Operations Management.

Which of the following pieces of data is LEAST useful when diagnosing an Incident?

A. The identity of the user who called the Service Desk to report the Incident

B. The cost of the CI that is affected by the Incident

C. The unique identity of the affected CI

D. The time and date the Incident was reported

Again, simply pick the correct answer.

?

B The cost of a CI is least relevant when resolving an Incident as the cost does not impact on theperformance of a CI. The other data is essential in managing the Incident effectively and restoring service assoon as possible.

Which of the following is the best definition of an Incident?

A. A warning that a threshold has been reached, something has changed, or a failure hasoccurred

B. The addition, modification or removal of anything that could have an effect on IT Services

C. An unplanned interruption to an IT Service, reduction in the quality of an IT Service or thefailure of a Configuration Item that has not yet affected Service

?



Page 4 / 7



Answers

HINT

A definition question is a ‘gift’ — providing you know the definition! All four response alternatives in Example 5 areService Management ITIL definitions. In some questions the distracters (the incorrect responses) may not be realService Management definitions.

List

A ‘list’ question is where a list of statements is given and you are required to select those that satisfy the criteria proposed

in the ‘stem’.

EXAMPLE 6

Answers

The question in Example 6 uses the Event Management process. One of the actions is incorrect (see the answer on page10 for which one). There are two ways of arriving at the right answer (for each one, you need to know the process!):

n If you can identify the incorrect action, choose the option where that action is not included.

n Alternatively work through the options until you find the answer with the four correct actions.

Matching Columns

A ‘matching columns’ question presents you with two lists. You have to ‘match’ an item in column B with a statement incolumn A. Here's an example to illustrate how it works.

D. The unknown cause of one or more Incidents

C This is the correct definition of an Incident. The other options are ITIL definitions of an Alert (A), a Change(B) and a Problem (D).

Which of the following actions are included in the Event Managementprocess?

1. Generation

2. Detection

3. Filtered

4. Correction

5. Closure

A. 1, 2, 3 and 4 only

B. 2, 3, 4 and 5 only

C. 1, 2, 3 and 5 only

D. 1, 3, 4 and 5 only

?

C The action ‘Correction’ is incorrect — it should be ‘Correlation’.



Page 5 / 7



EXAMPLE 7

Answers

This is a simplified example as the items in both columns appear only once in each ‘response alternative’. Also, becauseeach possible ‘matching’ appears only once within the response alternatives, as soon as you have identified one correctmatching pair you have the correct answer.

For example if you think Service Operation (‘4’ in column A) is where you would find Event Management (‘y’ in column B)you would choose option ‘B’ because it is the only one which includes ‘4 y’. Again, there are two ways of arriving at thecorrect answer: you can identify the correct pairings as above, or you can identify incorrect pairings to eliminate false

options.

A Further Note on ‘Distracters’

The following will help you understand and prepare to deal with distracters (i.e. the wrong ‘response alternatives’).Sometimes a distracter will be completely incorrect, however, there will be times when a distracter will contain someelements of truth.

Some questions will require you to make a judgement to determine which response alternative is the ‘best’ response to thequestion posed in the stem. Variations on this style of question can require you to select the ‘least’, ‘most’, ‘main’, responseetc.

It is good practice to highlight the words ‘best’, ‘least’ etc. in the stem and then, for this style of question, carefully read all

the response alternatives and use your judgement to select the most appropriate option based on the relative strength ofthe proposition in relation to ITIL guidance, and the specific question being asked.

Here's an example.

EXAMPLE 8

Match the lifecycle process in column B with the correct lifecycle phase in column A.

Column A Column B

1 Service Strategy w Capacity Management2 Service Design x Demand Management

3 Service Transition y Event Management

4 Service Operation z Knowledge Management

A 1 w 2 y 3 x 4 z

B 1 x 2 w 3 z 4 y

C 1 z 2 x 3 y 4 w

D 1 y 2 z 3 w 4 x

?

B The correct combinations are SS-Demand Management, SD-Capacity Management, ST-KnowledgeManagement and SO-Event Management.

Which of the following best describes ‘ITIL’ Service Management?

A. A set of books

B. Five books together with some complementary ‘guidance’

C. A Service Management publication

D. Service Management guidance based on ‘best practice’

?



Page 6 / 7



Answers

All the response alternatives are ‘true’, however, one is best (i.e. it is more complete, more accurate, more appropriateetc.). Which is it?

Summary

The question types above are the main types of question you should encounter in an ITIL Service ManagementFoundation Examination.

You may notice as you work through the questions that different styles of writing have been used in creating the questions.This is deliberate. Foundation Examination paper questions are written by a group of authors over a period of time, and wehave reflected this in this publication. Consequently, there will be variations in the style of language and phrasing used.

D This is the most complete, most accurate and most appropriate option.



Page 7 / 7

Documents

9781906124182 Chapter 2 Multiple Choice Questions